The NCAA Baseball Tournament is rather unique as far as postseasons in sports go. After typically playing only four games per week during the regular season, teams suddenly find themselves playing as many as five in four days once the postseason rolls around. In no other sport are so many games with as high stakes crammed into such a short period of time.
As a result, pitching depth becomes especially critical for college baseball when May and June roll around. Playing in its fourth game in three days Sunday evening, USC desperately needed help on the mound. Fortunately for the Trojans, they were able to find it from a somewhat unexpected source: sophomore right-hander Andrew Johnson.
After throwing 21 pitches out of the bullpen less than 48 hours prior, Johnson was tasked with starting Sunday evening’s matchup against Texas A&M. With the Trojans having already played a game earlier that day (in addition to one each of the prior two days), they were desperate for someone to come in and eat up significant innings.
Well, Johnson did that and then some. He pitched 7.1 innings for USC, throwing a remarkable 124 pitches. Not only did Johnson eat up outs, but he was also quite effective, allowing just three runs on nine hits.
Thanks to Johnson’s remarkable performance, head coach Andy Stankiewicz was able to avoid using many of his other arms. With the Trojans set to play a fifth game in four days when they face the Aggies again Monday night, this could be especially crucial as USC and A&M face off with a trip to the super regionals on the line.
In Los Angeles, Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s historic 2025 World Series performance for the Dodgers—throwing 96 pitches in a Game 6 start and coming out of the bullpen for 34 more the following night—has established itself as the gold standard of pitching performances that seemingly should not have been possible. What Johnson did Sunday night was not quite on that level, but it was still pretty darn impressive.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Andrew Johnson gives USC baseball massive performance vs Texas A&M
Reporting by Adam Bradford, Trojans Wire / Trojans Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
